Perspectives

Metal beer signs. They are in bars everywhere. One would assume that they are actually a decent marketing tactic, given their prevalence. However, I have a hard time rationalizing the ROI myself. Have I ever bought a beer because I saw a sign up? I don’t think so. Have you?

The only thing I can figure is that it’s a good relationship building tactic for a brewery (or distributor) and the bar or restaurant receiving the free sign. And it obviously can’t harm your brand. Unless your metal sign is covered in STDs. Or explodes metal shards into someone’s face. Or causes the apocalypse. In these rare cases, a metal sign might hard your brand.

Regardless, there’s a pretty good possibility that we will need metal beer signs at some point. And with that in mind, we thought we’d start thinking about them. We’d like to start pretty basic before adding the razzle dazzle (lasers, smoke machines, 3D motorized pirates). So here’s a rectangular mockup of what a metal sign might look like.

This is a first pass, so we’d love any and all comments from you, our faithful reader. Thoughts?

At 10,000 gallons each, these are the largest wooden brewing vessels built in America since before Prohibition. It’s all very exciting. We have wood. Now you do too.

Quite subtle, Dogfish Head. They really snuck that sexual reference in there. While this wordplay isn’t quite Monday Night’s style, it did get me thinking about little branding elements or slogans other microbreweries employ. Craft breweries generally have more free reign than most companies with this type of thing. Though Terrapin did mysteriously rename their Wake-N-Bake the Coffee Oatmeal Imperial Stout for no apparent reason.

Four years ago, armed with only a turkey fryer and a few plastic buckets, we set out on a journey to launch a brewery in 2010. At the time, we knew very little about the brewing industry, so our timeline was meant to be far enough into the future to give us a chance to learn it, but not too far away as to make it easy on us.

With one day left in 2010, it is clear that we won’t quite make our goal. However, we are still aiming for an early 2011 launch and the pieces are slowly falling into place. One thing we underestimated when setting a timeline was how anal Jeff was. It has taken us the better part of 4 years to perfect 2 recipes. That is a lot of perfecting. Our Eye Patch Ale alone has gone through 20+ iterations, most of them with relatively minor changes, to get it just right. And we’re confident with our final recipes.

You may have noticed a slowdown in brewing operations lately. That is due in part with our confidence in final recipes, but also coincides with us ramping up other aspects of the business. Such as licensing. And banking. You know, the sexy stuff.

While we aren’t going to make our original 2010 launch goal, we are excited with how far we have come with year, and think the extra waiting is going to pay off. Thanks so much for taking this journey with us, whether you’ve attended on a Monday or simply read our blog from time to time. We really do appreciate it, and can’t wait for you to take the next step of our journey with us as well.

Over the past 2 weeks it has been my pleasure to meet with many banks with the express purpose of deciding where we should put our money. I am by trade a marketing guy, and my role with the brewery is Marketing Guy and Master of Mind Control. Not exactly the one you would peg as a lover of banking, especially when Jeff deals with numbers and ROI and spreadsheets on a daily basis.

However, I’ve really enjoyed it. I find myself enjoying all aspects of starting a business, even if they aren’t necessarily my strong suit. As we’ve been moving closer to launch, we’ve spent a lot of our energy putting the right team in place ? a lawyer, an accountant, a t-shirt vendor, and yes ? a banker.

While our immediate banking needs will be pretty basic, we like to think of this relationship as a long-term commitment. We are relational fellows (we did start out of a bible study, after all), and strive for strong relationships from everyone we interact with. That obviously includes our end consumers, but it also includes the guy with the coat and tie handling our money. Just take a look at our logo and you’ll see the appreciation we have for coats and ties.

So here’s to you, banker dudes. Thanks for doing the boring stuff so we can make beer.

I am currently reading The Search for God and Guinness by Stephen Mansfield. I’m about halfway through and so far it is excellent. If you love beer and beer history (I’m looking at YOU, Maureen Ogle), this is a must-read.

That is all. Please return back to your regularly scheduled Friday activities.

It’s no surprise that we love beer. If it IS a surprise, you clearly have trouble drawing reasonable conclusions from what you have read. But why do we love beer? Our reasons are varied, and we’d love to hear yours. Here are some of my top reasons, in no particular order:

Beer is alive. The element of live yeast makes it so dern interesting.

Beer is broad. The differences between a light lager and a Russian Imperial Stout are astounding. And yet both are beer. Though notice I didn’t capitalize light lager.

Beer spans generational, economic, and cultural constructs. Much like Waffle House, those who enjoy beer come from all walks of life. It is a true commonality in a world of differences.

Beer is calming. There is nothing better than winding down with a quality beer (especially a Monday Night beer) at the end of a long day.

Beer brings people together. Beer provides that little bit of a reason needed to hang out with those we love. “Hey Bob, want to grab a beer sometime?” Or “Hey Justin Timberlake, want to grab a beer sometime?” I like to pretend I’m friends with Justin Timberlake.

Yep. I think I’m going to end that one on Justin Timberlake. So what are YOUR reasons for loving beer?

Many people have preconceived, often false, notions of stouts. This glorious beer has a heavy color and a heavier name (in-laws are stout, not beers, right?). People tend to associate the following traits with this heavy outward appearance:

Stout in its classic form is one of the lighter ales, paradoxically full-bodied yet delicate. For years, my go-to midday brew was draft Guinness Stout, a once-rare beer that has become easier and easier to find in New York in the years since the city?s beer consciousness was raised. Aside from the enticing flavors of roasted barley and coffee, a properly pulled pint is low in alcohol, around 4 percent, fractionally less even than Bud Light. It?s probably wishful thinking, but I like to think a midday stout aids the digestion. I know it improves the imagination.

I have to say stouts are some of my favorite beers. There’s also a lot of versatility within the style. Cherry stouts, milk stouts, chocolate stouts, coffee stouts, Russian Imperial stouts. The maltiness of the stout can hold up to a lot of added flavors. I still want to brew our mint chocolate stout again. OMG DELICIOUS.

If you’ve stayed clear of stouts because you thought they were too heavy or too alcoholic, I beg you to try again. There’s a stout out there for [almost] everyone.